R. A. Lafferty: Trending quotes (page 5)

“There are only two possible statements that can be made about the worlds," the Black Pope of the Carlist Hills had lectured one day. "Alpha: There is a God. Omega: there is not a God. To adhere to either of these two statements strongly is to be logical at least. Not to do so is to be in the snivelling wasteland between and to have no point of contact with logic or reason.”

R. A. Lafferty

Source: The Flame is Green (1971), Ch. 5 : Muerte De Boscaje

God , World

“I don't think I should be getting more attention from mainstream book reviewers. I've never written any mainstream books, and I'm always surprised when the mainstreamers notice me at all.”

R. A. Lafferty

As quoted in "My interview with R.A. Lafferty", by Tom Jackson, originally published in Lan's Lantern #39 (1991); here in the Sandusky Register (16 January 2015) http://www.sanduskyregister.com/story/201501160010

Books , Thinking

“I write as clearly as I am able to. I sometimes tackle ideas and notions that are relatively complex, and it is very difficult to be sure that I am conveying them in the best way. Anyone who goes beyond cliche phrases and cliche ideas will have this trouble.”

R. A. Lafferty

Interview in Alien Critic (August 1973)

Way , Idea

“The shapes they take are both objective and subjective. One can shape them a little with one's own mind.”

R. A. Lafferty book Past Master

Source: Past Master (1968), Ch. 7

“These men were the salt of the skies, the one out of ten who had determinedly stayed alive through the whole war, very often hurt, absolutely refusing to be killed.”

R. A. Lafferty

Source: Space Chantey (1968), Ch. 1

Men , War , Hurt

“My brain reels," moaned Homer the man. "Reality melts away.”

R. A. Lafferty

" The Hole in the Corner http://www.mulle-kybernetik.com/RAL/hole.html" (1967); later in Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970)

Reality

“Put the nightmare together. If you do not wake up screaming, you have not put it together well.”

R. A. Lafferty

Prologue
The Devil is Dead (1971)

“There are no rules. We do whatever seems the most fun.”

R. A. Lafferty

Bjorn to Captain Roadstrum, Ch. 2
Space Chantey (1968)

“When you can't depend on the Devil, who can you depend on?”

R. A. Lafferty

Source: The Devil is Dead (1971), Ch. 5

Dependency

“I'll break the spell or the science of her singing yet. As the only man left it devolves on me to do it.”

R. A. Lafferty

Roadstrum, not realizing he has become a small ape, in Ch. 6
Space Chantey (1968)

Science , Singing

“Pirates are perhaps the greatest invention of Earth people," Elizabeth interrupted loftily, "and their pirate stories are wonderful entertainment for small children. We have to give Earth people credit for that, they invented pirates.”

R. A. Lafferty

The Reefs of Earth (1968)

Children , People

“Tell me the truth, girl: how does the man next door ship out trailer-loads of material from a building ten times too small to hold the stuff?”

R. A. Lafferty

"He cuts prices."
"In Our Block" (1965); later in Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970)

Truth , Girl , Time

“Paul, there is something very slack about a future that will take a biting satire for a vapid dream.”

R. A. Lafferty book Past Master

The character of Thomas More on the future reception of his Utopia, in Ch. 2
Past Master (1968)

Dreams , Future

“Though my short stories are the more readable, my novels do have more to say; and they will, if anyone has the patience for it, repay a rereading.”

R. A. Lafferty

Interview in Alien Critic (August 1973)

Patience

“The Dong button was just that, a big green button with the word Dong engraved on it. You pushed it, and it went dong. Well, that was almost too simple. Should there not be a deeper reason for it? And the small instruction plate over it didn’t add much. It read: “Wrong prong, bong gong.””

R. A. Lafferty

Description of a Dong button, which is later revealed to reverse the flow of time for the wielder, if there has been a dire error made which needs correcting, Ch. 3
Ch. 3 -->
Space Chantey (1968)

Reading

“As regards very small celestial bodies of a light-minded nature, the law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.”

R. A. Lafferty

Atlas, in Ch. 4
Space Chantey (1968)

Law , Nature , Light

“This myth filter was necessary. The ship logs could not tell it rightly nor could any flatfooted prose. And the deeds were too bright to be viewed direct. They could only be sung by a bard gone blind from viewing suns that were suns.”

R. A. Lafferty

Source: Space Chantey (1968), Ch. 1

Sun

“"Oh, I cannot abide these complacent clods," I exclaim. "I cannot relate to these opulent oafs who are laughing in the streets. They are not high enough or low enough. For my love I must find the poor, the deprived, the fornicators, the addicts, the drunkards, the unwashed,…"
"Oh, these are the poor," the clod told me. "This is the poorest street in town, Index Y-Z. It's hard to tell them apart now except that the poor spend more ostentatiously than the rich do."”

R. A. Lafferty

Source: Arrive at Easterwine (1971), Ch. 6